Design by Community enters second week, ponders size and shape

It’s Week Two of the Nokia Design by Community project – this week they focus on size and shape. That means the standard height, width and depth but also the form factor and the lens cover (which can add quite a bit to the thickness of the phone).

Over 43,000 people voted last week, but you’ll never guess which screen size turned out to be the most popular. It was… mhmm… four inches. Yep, four – not 3.5” (like the iPhone), not 3.2” (many touch phones hover around this size), but 4” (e.g. Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10).

This puts limit on the minimum width – the Nokia Conversations team says the screen itself will be 50 mm wide so the phone will be wider once you add in the screen bezel. Well, that depends on the aspect ratio, the LG BL40 New Chocolate has a 4-inch screen and is 51mm wide (including bezel) with a 21:9 aspect, though most users are expected to go for a 16:9 ratio.

Anyway, they also mention the subject of thickness and ask “how thin is too thin?”. The sliders go up to “less than 5mm”, but that’s excessive if you ask me. Especially if the community insists on fourinch touchscreens.

One more thing – QWERTY keyboards were a popular choice, but in the end virtual keyboards won the day. That’s important to keep in mind when choosing the form factor (i.e. monoblock is probably going to win).

Cast your vote before March 29, when the project moves on to picking the materials for the phone.